In Budapest...

When I woke up on Tuesday morning there was driving rain and gusty winds. Not ideal weather for flying. Fortunately, I was due to fly to Budapest at lunch time and hopefully the weather would calm down: that was my thinking anyway. And it did calm down, the rain stopped and the flight, which had been delayed because of the poor weather conditions, took off around an hour later than scheduled. It was relatively smooth, but as always I couldn't relax. The flight was too short to get immersed in a good book, there were no movies, so instead I flicked through the High Life magazine, read John Simpson's column and looked longingly at some of the watches in the shopping supplement. I sold my Rolex a few years back to pay off some debts. I didn't order anything to eat either and that was because I'd already eaten a chicken burger followed by an apple tart with ice cream and a cup of tea, two cups, actually, at the Oriel bar and restaurant in Heathrow's Terminal 3. My colleague Paul had texted me to say he was there, so I made my way after checking in and paying an extortionate £65 to stow my suitcase in the hold. One of the most annoying things about my Samsonite case is that the company that made it said it offered cabin dimensions, but I know that it's a bit bulkier than the sort of case one normally takes on board, that's why I bought it. But when the check-in woman asked me to put it in the metal frame that determines whether a case can be taken on as hand luggage or not, it failed the test and I had to pay up.

Room 102, Sofitel Budapest

I was running late so my case was probably one of the last to be loaded, which meant it was first on the baggage carousel when we arrived in Budapest. We took a taxi from the airport and soon found ourselves at the Sofitel hotel, which is one of those places with a massive, galleried atrium and glass lifts that run eight floors up the side of one wall, exposing the occupants.

Once, a long time ago in Mexico, my work colleagues and I played a game of dare; we all had to write down a dare and place it in an ash try and then it was a lucky dip as to what dare we were going to choose. Various dares were on offer: one was singing with the hotel band, another was travelling in one of the escalators dressed in nothing our underpants and another was running around our hotel floor - or any floor we chose - stark bollock naked. And that, my friends, was the dare I picked. I could do it at any time as long as I did it some time before the end of our stay in the hotel. I chose my floor, which was some way up, I can't remember my room number, and I picked 2300hrs as the time I'd attempt the dare. We were sitting down in the hotel restaurant one evening when I announced that tonight was the night. One of my party had already sang along with the hotel band, another had travelled from the top to the bottom floor dressed only in his boxer shorts and now I was going to run around my hotel floor naked. If I'm honest, it didn't phase me. I simply went to my room, took off all my clothes, ensured that I and nobody else had my room key and off I went. Fortunately for me nobody came out of their rooms and I reckon I completed a circuit in about three minutes, probably less. These were pre-digital times and when I reached home I asked my wife to drop my film at the chemist for developing. This she did, but what I didn't know was that one of my little group had somehow managed to half inch my camera during my nude run around the hotel. I got back home from work one day to discover a neat little fan of prints on the dining room table and they were all of me running naked around that hotel in Mexico. What I'm saying is this: there's photographic evidence, folks. Mind you, had Facebook been invented those images would probably be circulating around the world.

Breakfast most days...

In Budapest, I was staying in room 102 on the first floor and the room was great. Quite a big room with the bathroom on the left as you come in followed by a huge double bed with fluffy pillows; there was a sofa, a table, which was the desk and a flat-screen TV. There was a minibar stuffed with booze, which I didn't touch, plus a couple of Mars Bars, which are still there, and a couple of small cans of chocolate peanuts and spicy peanuts, which I did touch, and I owned up later when asked 'did you have anything from the minibar?'

The bathroom was pleasant. It had everything I needed, there was even two showers, one in the bath and the other in a self-contained shower room. The only thing wrong with the room was the plug in the sink, which remained permanently shut. I had to prise it out with my fingers and managed it once or twice, but there was a period of around a day or two when it remained full of water. Not even the housekeeping staff bothered to empty it, so it was down to me. It was best to keep the plug out at all times.

One of the Sofitel's elevators

The most annoying thing about the hotel, however, was the lifts. They work using the room's key card - never a good idea - and it's a bit of a faff. I've had one or two occasions where I've been faffing around trying to get it to work and then noticing that the lift was travelling somewhere to pick up other guests, leaving me to say something like, "Oh, this isn't my floor". Pathetic. There's a pool, which I haven't used and a gym, which I haven't been near, and outside there's a city, which I haven't seen, although I've been to Budapest before and on previous visits I've walked all over the place.

Last night I took a brief stroll around the city and returned to the hotel to have dinner: venison soup followed by chicken with a non-alcohol beer and a bottle of mineral water. I skipped dessert based on the fact that all week I'd been nibbling at little cakes and pastries during the coffee and tea breaks of the conference I was attending.

I think this is St. Stephen's Basilica...

It is now Friday morning and I have a bit of time to go exploring before heading home, although, as I write this, it's nearly 0900hrs and I haven't had breakfast yet. I fly this evening around 1700hrs (1720 to be precise) so I don't have to be at the airport until mid-afternoon. No doubt I'll take a stroll across the river and sit in a Starbucks reading, if I can find one. Something like that. Last night I switched off my alarms as I didn't want to be woken up at 0600hrs and I wasn't. I woke up around 0830hrs and right now I'm sitting here in the dark, curtains drawn, lights not on, typing away on my blog.

The Sofitel from the chain bridge

Today, incidentally, my blog is 10 years old, something I'll probably write more about at a later date. It's been 10 years since I started writing and it's been good, it's kept me out of mischief when travelling abroad and it's documented my life over the last decade. I say it's kept me out of mischief and by that I mean that I tend to sit in my hotel room of an evening writing the blog rather than sitting in the hotel bar drinking too much. Of course, I haven't been drinking for the past two years so that's now out of the equation, but in truth, I enjoy writing, like now, alone in my room. In fact it's distracting and I tend to miss breakfast as a result, like now.

It's 0903hrs and I'm going to have to rush to make breakfast ... but now it's 1036hrs and I've returned having enjoyed sausage, scrambled egg, mushrooms, potatoes, cereal, a couple of bakery items and a peppermint tea. Check-out is at 1100hrs so I'd better get moving. There's never any time. First I'm rushing to reach the breakfast room and now I'm rushing to check-out. I'll leave my 'stuff' with the concierge and take a wander around town. I'll probably have lunch somewhere and then I'll head back to the hotel, pick up my 'luggage' and head for the airport. But first I've got to print out my boarding pass in the business centre downstairs. They've got quite a good business centre. It's on the ground floor, close to the front desk. But enough of all this! My work here is done, so to speak, and I'm looking forward to getting home and re-engaging with my usual routine.

A Jamie's Italian? In Budapest? And it's still open!

I decided to cross the Danube on the bridge across from my hotel, which I think was the chain bridge. I then followed a path to higher ground where I visited Buda Castle. There were soldiers marching around and flags, perhaps it was a Government building, who knows? I popped my head around a few gift shop doors, bought a fridge magnet and then sauntered back, down the hill and across the river to the hotel and then I decided to get some lunch. I found a fairly posh gaff, which was part of the Four Seasons Hotel where, incidentally, Will Smith was in residence. I never saw him and he didn't see me either so all was well.

Soldier at Buda Castle (I think!)

I'm getting fed up with non-alcohol beer, by the way. It's so awful and not really worth buying so in future I'll stick to sparkling mineral water, it's more refreshing. Lunch was beef bourguignon (their spelling, not mine) and it was fantastic. I also stuffed myself with a few bread rolls and then asked for the bill.

Back at the hotel I ordered up a taxi and fell asleep on the one-hour journey to the airport, from where I finish off this post. Check-in had already been done online, I dropped off my bag and was told that the plane would be empty from row 20 backwards. I changed my seat from 18A to 20A and had a whole row to myself, which was wonderful news and I'm now at Gate C12 waiting to board. I'd better go.